Public Policy Student Awarded Scholarship to Study in Brazil
Shamira Quiñones, a senior majoring in public policy, will spend the fall semester in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile, to compare and contrast the educational structures in these countries with the U.S. education system.
“This gives me the opportunity to explore in depth the education systems and how they work for low-income students from these countries, and this also allows me to have interdisciplinary views of public policy from all angles on what works and what doesn’t work,” said Quiñones, a 2014 graduate of Noble Street College Prep. “I also look forward to learning more about the Afro-Latino diasporas in these cities.”
Some of the subjects she will examine are the Haitian immigration crises in Santiago, the history of the slave trade in Rio De Janeiro, and the free education system in Buenos Aires.
“As an Afro-Latina, this is important to me because my ancestors faced racism not just from non-Latino communities, but from the biases in the Latino community,” she said. “To have the chance to explore the African diasporas in South America provides the opportunity to have a deeper understanding of my ancestors and my own identity.”
While at UIC, Quiñones has interned for several nonprofit organizations that advocate for education equality and founded March for MAP, a student-led group that marched in Springfield to encourage Illinois policymakers to find funding solutions for financial need-based grants and the state’s higher education institutions.
“I have devoted my college career to education activism and becoming a role model of what a young and educated Latina can achieve despite being a minority and low-income first generation college student,” said Quiñones, who plans to pursue a career in education advocacy after graduating from UIC in December.
The Fund for Education Abroad was established as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2010 to provide scholarships and ongoing support to students who are underrepresented among the U.S. study abroad population, particularly first-generation college, minority and community college students.
Story Taken from UIC Today